Vaccine article

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 10/21/00 9:12:29 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

queenearth@... writes:

<<

Did anyone read the vaccine article in the September 2000 issue of Good

Housekeeping?

>>

Yes,I have a copy of that.Interesting read. MAkes me wonder when I see people

on the news being charged with the death of their babie.Makes me wonder if it

really wasn't the vaccines.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 10/22/00 6:14:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

snakken@... writes:

<<

ACtually I think you are referring to the REdbook article, Sara.

The Goodhousekeeping one was not so enlightening from what I understand -

the party line.

Didn't read it.

Sheri >>

Oh yes you are right.Sorry! I never read the good housekeeping one except I

think for the portion in it giving the stats of complications/death rates

from the diseases vs. the vaccine. If this is the right article I am thinking

of now,lol.

[Guest guest]

ACtually I think you are referring to the REdbook article, Sara.

The Goodhousekeeping one was not so enlightening from what I understand -

the party line.

Didn't read it.

Sheri

At 09:03 PM 10/22/2000 EDT, you wrote:

>In a message dated 10/21/00 9:12:29 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

>queenearth@... writes:

>

><<

> Did anyone read the vaccine article in the September 2000 issue of Good

> Housekeeping?

>

> >>

>Yes,I have a copy of that.Interesting read. MAkes me wonder when I see

people

>on the news being charged with the death of their babie.Makes me wonder if

it

>really wasn't the vaccines.

>

>

>

>

>

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA

530-272-7306

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

" All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men ( &

women) do nothing " ...Edmund Burke

ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE

DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.

Well Within's Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin

International Tours, Homestudy Courses, ANTHRAX & OTHER Vaccine Dangers

Education, Homeopathic Education

KVMR Broadcaster/Programmer/Investigative Reporter, Nevada City CA

CEU's for nurses, Books & Multi-Pure Water Filters

[Guest guest]

The November issue of BabyTalk also has a vaccine article.

>From: nnu29@...

>Reply-Vaccinationsegroups

>Vaccinationsegroups

>Subject: Re: Vaccine article

>Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 21:03:19 EDT

>

>In a message dated 10/21/00 9:12:29 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

>queenearth@... writes:

>

><<

> Did anyone read the vaccine article in the September 2000 issue of Good

> Housekeeping?

>

> >>

>Yes,I have a copy of that.Interesting read. MAkes me wonder when I see

>people

>on the news being charged with the death of their babie.Makes me wonder if

>it

>really wasn't the vaccines.

_________________________________________________________________________

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[Guest guest]

If anyone wants to read the September 2000 article on vaccines that was in Good Housekeeping, I typed it (because I felt like typing) and will be happy to post it here (no attachment).

[Guest guest]

Saying how " safe and effective " they are???

At 01:30 PM 10/23/00 GMT, you wrote:

>The November issue of BabyTalk also has a vaccine article.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Please do , Thanks!

List Owner of Vaccinations and Vaccine Infowww.geocities.com/mom2q (my work in progress!)Mom of two great kids who are vaccine free!

-----Original Message-----From: [mailto:queenearth@...]Sent: Monday, October 23, 2000 12:45 PMVaccinationsegroupsSubject: re: vaccine article

If anyone wants to read the September 2000 article on vaccines that was in Good Housekeeping, I typed it (because I felt like typing) and will be happy to post it here (no attachment).

[Guest guest]

Actually the article is pretty good. It lists the pros and cons. It has

several interviews with people who are against vaccines. Of coarse the

author was biased toward vaccines but the information is good enough to get

a thinking person’s juices flowing.

>From: <moira@...>

>Reply-Vaccinationsegroups

>Vaccinationsegroups

>Subject: Re: Vaccine article

>Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 18:55:01 -0700

>

>Saying how " safe and effective " they are???

>

>At 01:30 PM 10/23/00 GMT, you wrote:

> >The November issue of BabyTalk also has a vaccine article.

> >

> >

>

_________________________________________________________________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at

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[Guest guest]

Ok, here it is...I did my best checking for typos

How SAFE are kids VACCINES?

(September 2000 Issue of Good Housekeeping)

Before your children are 18 months old, they’ll have routine immunizations against ten illnesses. Should they? By S. Barasch

In June 1999, Melynda Slay took her three month old, on, to a pediatrician near Denver. During the checkup, the doctor recommended that Slay have her son vaccinated against rotavirus - a disease that causes more than half a million cases of diarrhea each year in the United States and kills more than 870,000 people around the world. In 1998, the American Academy of Pediatrics added the vaccine to the list of those it recommended for young children.

The decision was a snap, Slay says. "The doctor told me there weren’t any major side effects," she remembers. "He acted as if it was the best thing since sliced bread."

The next day, though, baby on was fussy, and he soon stopped eating. Six days later, feverish and lethargic, he had diarrhea that was tinged with blood and mucus. Doctors told her the problem was a stomach virus and that she was overreacting, but Slay panicked as her child got weaker. "I sat up one whole night with on, scared to death," she says.

Finally, eight days after the shot, Slay rushed her son to an emergency room. At the hospital, the problem finally was diagnosed by the chief resident, whose supervisor had attended a conference at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and learned of a suspected link between the rotavirus vaccine and a serious bowel obstruction. Tests revealed that on did, indeed, have a blockage - one that was corrected by administering three barium enemas.

By October 1999, the CDC had investigated 99 confirmed cases of bowel obstruction among infants who had received the vaccine - one of them fatal. The agency recommended that physicians stop administering the vaccine, and though it was taken off the market the next month, the recall gave new urgency to some lingering questions: Are vaccines riskier than pediatricians would like us to believe? Are immunizations worth the gamble, no matter how small? And how do you know your own child won’t become a statistic?

The answers, of course, aren’t simple. And special-interest groups, unmonitored Web sites, and tabloid-style TV shows are making it even harder for parents to assess the actual risks and benefits of immunization.

When something does go wrong, too many of us blame ourselves. "It makes me feel awful that I was risking my baby’s health when I was just taking the pediatrician’s advice," says Slay, whose son seems fully recovered.

For their part, public health officials acknowledge that no vaccine is safe in every case. Though the most common side effect is a minor irritation near the injection site, immunizations have been known to cause disability and even death. There’s a proven link, for example, between the DPT vaccination (now being replaced by a lower-risk version dubbed DTaP) and anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction that can be fatal. "It’s extremely rare, but we know it can occur," says ston, M.D., who was the chair of the former Vaccine Safety Forum of the Institute of Medicine, a branch of The National Academies. But Dr. ston notes that having pertussis (whooping cough), for example, is far more dangerous than getting the vaccine. "The rates of brain damage in babies who contract the disease," he says, "are high."

In most cases, links between inoculations and a range of "side effects" aren’t clear. Medical researchers explain that symptoms that crop up after a vaccination might not have been caused by the shot; in many cases, they can demonstrate only that one event followed the other.

But as Tom and Patsy learned, scare stories make it easy to dismiss the threat of diseases that most physicians never encounter. In 1991, when their son, Nickolas, was due for his final pertussis vaccination, they were so fearful of a reaction that they decided to skip the shot. One year later, Nickolas, then four, developed a frightening illness that caused coughing fits so violent he sometimes turned blue.

Nickolas was hospitalized for five days in his hometown of Columbus, Georgia, but his physicians couldn’t pinpoint the problem. After he was transferred to a medical center in Atlanta, a pulmonary specialist told the es that their son had whooping cough. Nickolas recovered, but the es felt guilty. "We’d thought we were being informed parents," Tom says now.

According to public health officials, the Internet, in particular, is a source for much of the misinformation that fuels vaccine anxiety. A recent poll in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that up to half the Americans who go online look for health information or support. The danger, JAMA editors warn, is "not too little information but too much…vast chunks of it incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate."

Or at least one-sided. A Web site run by a group called Concerned Parents for Vaccine Safety features a photo of a baby who seems traumatized by the sight of a hypodermic needle. The caption: "Impending Doom." Other antivaccine sites feature scientific looking reports and references to medical journals. Unfortunately, the reports often fail to note larger, more reliable studies that may contradict or disprove their frightening conclusions.

Barbara Loe Fisher cofounded Dissatisfied Parents Together after her child suffered what she believes was a severe reaction to a DPT shot (convulsions and six hours of unconsciousness that resulted in slight brain damage). Outspoken and influential, Fisher’s group often is mistaken for a government agency - particularly since 1989, when it was rechristened the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).

Perhaps partly as a result of Fisher’s lobbying, many physicians now give parents information sheets detailing the known risks of a given vaccine. And most members of the scientific community share Fisher’s interest in vaccine safety. "Immunization is as important a public health measure as has ever been undertaken," says Dr. ston, who is a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, "and we want to keep it as effective and safe as possible."

But NVIC’s campaign against "forced vaccination" (immunizations required in schools across America) is more controversial. Though immunizations against hepatitis B - a blood-borne disease recognized as a major public health problem - are now standard practice, the vaccines fore chicken pox and hepatitis A (a disease that can be transmitted by tainted food_ are hot buttons. "There are a lot of vaccines being licensed and added to mandatory vaccination lists without documentation of their necessity or safety," Fisher argues. "We’re hearing from people who have never had any questions about vaccines. They’re saying, ‘Why does my child need a vaccine for chicken pox? My other kids got sick and did fine.’"

"Yes, it’s true that the majority of children have a mild or moderate illness," concedes Neal Halsey, M.D., director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at s Hopkins University. "But every year we also see about a hundred deaths due to chicken pox, and fifty thousand children are hospitalized. We don’t know how to predict which children will come down with a life-threatening case."

Kathy Atchison knows what it’s like to lose a child to an unpredictable disease. Her son was just six when he contracted chicken pox. The case was unusually severe; within days, the disease had attacked the boy’s colon, lymph nodes, and lungs, says Atchison, a teacher’s assistant in Palm Harbor, Florida. On February 23, 1998, he died.

Since then, Atchison has learned that a vaccination for chicken pox - which she hadn’t known was available - could have saved ’s life. Now, she says, "My son is dead from something you think is so harmless."

Explaining the importance of vaccinating kids against hepatitis B is especially tricky. In the United States, the disease claims 4,000 to 5,000 lives each year, and one third of its victims are believed to have been infected as children. A hundred times more infectious than the AIDS virus, hepatitis B is transmitted through contact with blood or body fluids - meaning that, for adults, sex is the primary means of infection. (Kids typically contract the virus at birth, or from close contact with an infected person.)

"Children who aren’t immunized are at risk not only in early childhood but for the rest of their lives, because you can’t know who your child will pick as a sex partner," Dr. Halsey notes. "You’re buying insurance by immunizing them. If they make a mistake later, they won’t suffer the consequences."

But the fear persists. The argument offered by Kathy Rothschild, an Illinois mother who has nixed the vaccine for her two children, is typical: "Why should I put this questionable vaccine in my children when their chances of coming into contract with the hepatitis B virus are so remote?"

Public health officials say it’s easier for parents to ignore the dangers of forgoing vaccinations if they themselves are young. "Many parents grew up in the 1960’s, seventies, and even eighties, when the major diseases that can be prevented by vaccines had been conquered," notes Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., chair of the department of community and preventive medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University.

The scary truth is that if our immunization rates fall, vicious diseases could return with a vengeance. It happened in Japan, Sweden, and Great Britain, in the 1970’s; when the rate of vaccinations against pertussis dropped, thousands of children became ill, and scores died. In the last decade, a breakdown in the health-care system in much of the former Soviet Union caused a sharp decline in diphtheria vaccinations. The consequence was a devastating epidemic that caused 20,000 to 30,000 cases and several thousand death per year.

The irony, then, is that as immunization in this country helps tame diseases that are claiming lives abroad, Americans may confront an equally potent danger: complacency. "It’s a time bomb," one public health official says. "Any time you have a significant proportion of the school-age population not vaccinated, something’s going to happen."

RE: re: vaccine article

Please do , Thanks!

List Owner of Vaccinations and Vaccine Infowww.geocities.com/mom2q (my work in progress!)Mom of two great kids who are vaccine free!

-----Original Message-----From: [mailto:queenearth@...]Sent: Monday, October 23, 2000 12:45 PMVaccinationsegroupsSubject: re: vaccine article

If anyone wants to read the September 2000 article on vaccines that was in Good Housekeeping, I typed it (because I felt like typing) and will be happy to post it here (no attachment).

[Guest guest]

10/04/2002

By VALERI WILLIAMS / WFAA-TV

A record number of families this year have filed cases with the nation's Vaccine

Compensation Fund on behalf of children who've suffered side effects from their

immunizations.

More than a decade ago - with a broad spectrum of support from doctors, lawyers,

families and pharmaceutical companies - Congress established the fund to help in

the rare cases when there were vaccine injuries.

The fund now contains nearly $2 billion - but the government is making it

extremely difficult for victims to collect.

Also Online

Video: Valeri reports

Related stories

Corbin Lane, 7, can't write his name or carry on a conversation. However, he CAN

recite from memory at least twenty different children's books.

His parents are convinced that Corbin's neurological disorder was triggered by

the mercury in his vaccines. Tests show - like dozens of other American children

diagnosed with autism symptoms after being immunized - Corbin has a mercury

level off the chart.

" He does this flexing 'stim', which looks like central nervous system damage to

me, " mother Donn Lane said. " But when he gets excited or upset, he'll stim. And

now we can say to him, 'What are you doing?' And, he'll say, 'I'm stimming'.

" We actually looked back on our videotape - he was our first child so we

videotaped him like crazy. We saw it begin right around twenty months - standing

in front of the TV doing it. We thought he was just excited. "

It was only last year that Corbin was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental

Disorder, or PDD - a diagnostic cousin of autism. Yet, his family is not

eligible to apply for financial help from the Vaccine Compensation Fund because

of a three-year statute of limitations.

The catch is that the clock starts ticking from the first symptom of injury -

not the day of diagnosis. In Corbin's case, the video shows he began having

problems more than five years ago, although his parents had no clue what was

happening.

" I used to say 99 out of 100 parents who said their child had an adverse

reaction to a vaccine were time-barred, " attorney Jeff Sell said.

Houston attorney, Jeff Sell, has a personal stake in the fight to get Congress

to change the vaccine injury legislation. His son is autistic with extremely

high mercury levels.

" I'm time-barred, " Sell said. " By the time I sat down and looked at my son's

vaccine records, we were beyond three years and, there is an iron clad rule:

Three years from the manifestation of the injury - that is an unforgiveable

rule. "

The compensation fund is set up to help injuries from all vaccines. However,

within the past two years, thousands of families have come forward claiming

their autistic children were hurt by a mercury-based preservative found in many

vaccines called Thimerosal.

Medical opponents said those families have been stirred up by lawyers looking to

create a litigation bonanza in this country.

Ironically, this is exactly why the Vaccine Compensation Fund received so much

support - both from Democrats and Republicans - when it was established in 1988.

It was supposed to be a win-win situation for families and pharmaceutical

companies.

Initially, the Fund had three goals: To protect vaccine manufacturers from

lawsuits, to stabilize the nation's vaccine supply, and to provide generous

compensation to families without tying them up in court for years.

Indiana Congressman Dan Burton was one of the bill's biggest supporters, and

said the fund is not working like it should.

" No, it isn't at all, " Burton said. " There's $1.7 billion in the fund and,

instead of it being one that does not require litigation, almost every single

person that we've talked to who has had children harmed by vaccines has had to

fight and fight and fight to get compensation from them.

" In most cases, they don't get any compensation, and when they do, sometimes it

takes as much as ten years. "

For the past year, Burton's congressional committee on government reform has

held a series of hearings highlighting the problems of a parade of parents with

injured children.

He and others blame the Department of Justice, which administers the Vaccine

Fund, for making the process unnecessarily adversarial.

Some families said that in order to collect any compensation, they've been

forced into signing agreements that would keep information about their cases

from being published - information that could help other parents caught in

similar circumstances.

" I think if you talk to the average citizen in this country whose child was dead

or dying, who was suffering from lupus, and they said, 'I'll tell you what we'll

do - we'll settle this thing as long as you don't publish it', I think most

people would think that was unseemly (conduct) by the Federal Government, "

Burton said.

The Department of Justice declined to comment for this report. But during the

congressional hearings, officials claimed that for the past five years, they

have been streamlining the process.

Yet since the fund was established 14 years ago, less than a third of the 6,000

cases filed have resulted in compensation.

For many families facing years of mounting medical bills, the only alternative

is to do exactly what the bill hoped to prevent: file a lawsuit. In Texas alone,

three law firms in Houston and Dallas have gathered nearly 5,000 vaccine injury

cases.

Like the Lanes, these families have nothing to lose.

" You know that adage, 'We're going to force you to take this vaccine, but we

don't want to be responsible for what it does to you' - that's basically what's

happened, " Lane said.

There are at least three different bills that have popped up during the past

year that would alter the Vaccine Compensation Fund. The most popular is the

Burton/Waxman bill, proposed by a staunch Republican and a die-hard Democrat.

The most notable change is that the bill would extend the statute of limitations

to file a claim to six years.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Online at:

http://www.wfaa.com/latestnews/stories/wfaa021003_am_vaccine.851a48cb.html

vaccine article

Few getting help from vaccine fund

http://www.wfaa.com/latestnews/stories/wfaa021003_am_vaccine.851a48cb.html

[Guest guest]

One thing jumped out at me in this article. Aside from the vaccine, it

stands to reason that another thing our kids may have in common is

exposure to ear and in some cases, eye drops. Does it ever end? Mercury

surrounds us!

http://www.evidenceofharm.com/introduction.htm

[Guest guest]

Disease VS Vaccination: Where does the risk really lie?

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/disease-vs-vaccination.pdf

>

> JJ's shots caused his autism. I have the " Hot shot list " to prove it!!!!!!!

Nobody wants measels either BUT until they get the mercury out of the shots JJ

WILL never get another shot! And don't let them fool you.......They STILL have

the mercuy in the shots. Just ask to look at the ingretients in the shot. if you

see thrimisol that is Mercury. Lois

> Vaccine article

>

>

>

> Childhood diseases return as parents refuse vaccines

>

> Top Stories

> By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

>

> Landon , 4, was living in a Minneapolis homeless shelter when he fell

ill, first with a fever of 104 degrees, then with a red rash on his forehead.

>

> It took two visits to a doctor to diagnose a disease clinic staff hadn't

seen in years: measles.

>

> The rash spread into his mouth and throat, so swallowing was torture. He

began vomiting and developed a cough that nearly choked him. He was rushed to

the emergency room and hospitalized for five days.

>

> " Seeing a child in that predicament really hurt, " says his mother, Katrina

, 27. " He can't eat, he can't sleep, he's bad all around, and you can't do

anything about it. "

>

> Landon is one of at least 152 cases of measles diagnosed in the USA so far

this year †" twice the number seen in a typical year and the biggest outbreak

in 15 years, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of

patients have had to be hospitalized.

>

> For the doctors and nurses caring for patients like Landon, the return of

vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles †" a viral illness that once

killed 3,000 to 5,000 Americans a year †" is both frightening and all too

predictable.

>

> " Measles can be like a canary in a coal mine, " says the CDC's

Wallace. " If there are any issues with vaccine coverage, it can first be

apparent with measles. "

>

> In the past three years, doctors also have seen outbreaks of other

vaccine-preventable diseases, such as mumps, whooping cough and a

life-threatening bacterial infection called Hib. All can be deadly.

>

> Although overall vaccine coverage remains high, 40% of parents say they have

deliberately skipped or delayed a shot for their children.

>

> In some ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success. Today's parents

have never seen the diseases that terrified their grandparents, says Offit,

chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. " We've not

only eliminated these diseases; we've eliminated the memory of these diseases, "

Offit says.

>

> Parents who decline vaccines may not realize that they're gambling with the

lives of not just their kids, but all the children around them, says Patsy

Stinchfield, director of pediatric infectious disease at Children's Hospitals

and Clinics of Minnesota, where Landon was treated. Measles can kill by causing

pneumonia, brain inflammation and other complications, Stinchfield says. Babies

too young to be vaccinated and people with compromised immune systems, such as

those with cancer, are especially vulnerable. They rely on others around them to

keep the virus out of circulation, a phenomenon known as " herd immunity, " which

protects even those who can't be vaccinated, she says.

>

> And Offit notes that measles †" which killed 3,000 to 5,000 Americans a

year in the pre-vaccine days †" continues to kill. More than 164,000 people

died of the disease in 2008, the World Health Organization says.

>

> In January, a Finkelstein- lost her daughter, Emmalee, 8, to

long-term neurological complications of measles. Emmalee got measles in an

orphanage in India before being adopted and brought to the USA.

>

> " This is not just a personal choice, a case of 'I choose not to vaccinate my

child, and this only affects my family,' " says Finkelstein-, of

Littleston, Pa. " It affects your whole community. "

>

> Vaccines are widely available across the country, doctors say, and poor

children can get them for free. The biggest impediment to vaccinating kids today

is not cost, but fear, says Schaffner, a spokesman for the Infectious

Disease Society of America and professor at Vanderbilt University School of

Medicine in Nashville. Around the world, millions of parents began skipping or

delaying vaccines because of an infamous (and since retracted) 1998 study in the

British medical journal The Lancet. The study's author theorized that a combined

measles-mumps-rubella shot caused autism.

>

> It became one of the greatest myths in modern medicine, says Offit, author

of Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All. He points to

nearly two dozen studies showing no link between vaccines and autism. Last year,

The Lancet issued the retraction after learning that information had been

falsified. British health officials also stripped the study's author of his

ability to practice medicine in England because of professional misconduct.

>

> Still, myths about vaccines and autism persist.

>

> " It's very easy in our media-driven, easy-access-to-information society to

scare people, " says Remer Altmann, a doctor and spokeswoman for the

American Academy of Pediatrics. " It's much more difficult to unscare them. "

>

> In the USA, one of the most influential voices on vaccines is pediatrician

Sears, author of The Vaccine Book, who developed an " alternative " vaccine

schedule that delays many shots. Sears says infectious diseases remain a minor

threat. " I'm not a proponent of mandatory vaccination " for schoolchildren, says

Sears, the son of well-known pediatrician Sears. " Overall, in my mind,

vaccines should be a parent's choice. Given that these diseases don't pose a

large threat to children around us, I think parents have that right. "

>

> More parents are exercising their rights to refuse vaccines, research shows.

Forty-nine states allow children to bypass school vaccination requirements

because of religious objections, and 21 allow philosophical exemptions, Offit

says.

>

> From 1991 to 2004, the number of unvaccinated children in states allowing

philosophical exemptions more than doubled, found a study in Journal of the

American Medical Association. Granting exceptions to vaccine requirements has

helped foster outbreaks, research shows. That's partly because like-minded

parents tend to flock together, creating enclaves in which relatively few

children are vaccinated on time †" and viruses have more freedom to spread,

says Ari Brown of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

>

> In some counties in Washington state, for example, up to one in four

children are exempt from vaccine requirements, according to a 2009 study in The

New England Journal of Medicine. One of these under-vaccinated communities,

Vashon Island, near Seattle, has been hit with repeated outbreaks of whooping

cough, Offit says. Schaffner notes that France, which doesn't strictly enforce

school vaccine policies, has had more than 10,000 measles cases and six deaths

just this year.

>

> A growing number of unvaccinated travelers are bringing the disease home,

the CDC says. And as the summer travel season launches into full swing, " these

viral diseases are only a plane ride away, " says Schaffner. Cancer survivor

, 41, contracted measles in March from a fellow passenger on a

flight from New York to Vancouver, British Columbia. In spite of having had

measles as a child, got sick because migraine medications suppress her

immune system. She was quarantined in her home for a week. " The airline called

me, " she says, " just as I was starting to wonder, 'Hmm, I wonder what that red

rash is?' "

>

> Among the most vulnerable patients are children with cancer, including Ben

Bredesen, 3½, who has acute leukemia. He was exposed to measles in March by

another child at the Minneapolis hospital where he receives chemotherapy, says

his mother, Bredesen of Minneapolis. " I can't tell you how much weight I

lost, how sick you feel, checking your child at night to make sure he's still

breathing, " says Bredesen, noting that infections such as measles could kill her

son. " You're looking at every little thing as a symptom. "

>

> Ben was lucky this time and didn't develop measles. But he will remain

vulnerable during the two years of cancer therapy ahead. " My kid is fighting for

his life every single day, " Bredesen says. " There is no reason that he should

have to fight even harder because other people aren't vaccinating their kids. "

>

> Sent from the KFree iPhone

>

[Guest guest]

It's risk vs. reward and frankly it's very divisive in the autism community.  I for one chose to vaccinate my children.  We know that has an issue with his 18th chromosome and that is the cause.  My parents had me when they were older.  My father was profoundly affected by a now preventable childhood disease.  I've heard his story and know the pain he suffered.  Also,  just because two events occur at the same time does not mean they are connected.  That being said I'm not saying there isn't a causal relationship.  Just for us personally we chose to vaccinate.

On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 3:05 PM, sherryidic <sherryidic@...> wrote:

 

Disease VS Vaccination: Where does the risk really lie?

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/disease-vs-vaccination.pdf

>

> JJ's shots caused his autism. I have the " Hot shot list " to prove it!!!!!!! Nobody wants measels either BUT until they get the mercury out of the shots JJ WILL never get another shot! And don't let them fool you.......They STILL have the mercuy in the shots. Just ask to look at the ingretients in the shot. if you see thrimisol that is Mercury. Lois

> Vaccine article

>

>

>

> Childhood diseases return as parents refuse vaccines

>

> Top Stories

> By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

>

> Landon , 4, was living in a Minneapolis homeless shelter when he fell ill, first with a fever of 104 degrees, then with a red rash on his forehead.

>

> It took two visits to a doctor to diagnose a disease clinic staff hadn't seen in years: measles.

>

> The rash spread into his mouth and throat, so swallowing was torture. He began vomiting and developed a cough that nearly choked him. He was rushed to the emergency room and hospitalized for five days.

>

> " Seeing a child in that predicament really hurt, " says his mother, Katrina , 27. " He can't eat, he can't sleep, he's bad all around, and you can't do anything about it. "

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> Landon is one of at least 152 cases of measles diagnosed in the USA so far this year †" twice the number seen in a typical year and the biggest outbreak in 15 years, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of patients have had to be hospitalized.

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> For the doctors and nurses caring for patients like Landon, the return of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles †" a viral illness that once killed 3,000 to 5,000 Americans a year †" is both frightening and all too predictable.

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> " Measles can be like a canary in a coal mine, " says the CDC's Wallace. " If there are any issues with vaccine coverage, it can first be apparent with measles. "

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> In the past three years, doctors also have seen outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases, such as mumps, whooping cough and a life-threatening bacterial infection called Hib. All can be deadly.

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> Although overall vaccine coverage remains high, 40% of parents say they have deliberately skipped or delayed a shot for their children.

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> In some ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success. Today's parents have never seen the diseases that terrified their grandparents, says Offit, chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. " We've not only eliminated these diseases; we've eliminated the memory of these diseases, " Offit says.

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> Parents who decline vaccines may not realize that they're gambling with the lives of not just their kids, but all the children around them, says Patsy Stinchfield, director of pediatric infectious disease at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, where Landon was treated. Measles can kill by causing pneumonia, brain inflammation and other complications, Stinchfield says. Babies too young to be vaccinated and people with compromised immune systems, such as those with cancer, are especially vulnerable. They rely on others around them to keep the virus out of circulation, a phenomenon known as " herd immunity, " which protects even those who can't be vaccinated, she says.

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> And Offit notes that measles †" which killed 3,000 to 5,000 Americans a year in the pre-vaccine days †" continues to kill. More than 164,000 people died of the disease in 2008, the World Health Organization says.

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> In January, a Finkelstein- lost her daughter, Emmalee, 8, to long-term neurological complications of measles. Emmalee got measles in an orphanage in India before being adopted and brought to the USA.

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> " This is not just a personal choice, a case of 'I choose not to vaccinate my child, and this only affects my family,' " says Finkelstein-, of Littleston, Pa. " It affects your whole community. "

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> Vaccines are widely available across the country, doctors say, and poor children can get them for free. The biggest impediment to vaccinating kids today is not cost, but fear, says Schaffner, a spokesman for the Infectious Disease Society of America and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. Around the world, millions of parents began skipping or delaying vaccines because of an infamous (and since retracted) 1998 study in the British medical journal The Lancet. The study's author theorized that a combined measles-mumps-rubella shot caused autism.

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> It became one of the greatest myths in modern medicine, says Offit, author of Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All. He points to nearly two dozen studies showing no link between vaccines and autism. Last year, The Lancet issued the retraction after learning that information had been falsified. British health officials also stripped the study's author of his ability to practice medicine in England because of professional misconduct.

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> Still, myths about vaccines and autism persist.

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> " It's very easy in our media-driven, easy-access-to-information society to scare people, " says Remer Altmann, a doctor and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics. " It's much more difficult to unscare them. "

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> In the USA, one of the most influential voices on vaccines is pediatrician Sears, author of The Vaccine Book, who developed an " alternative " vaccine schedule that delays many shots. Sears says infectious diseases remain a minor threat. " I'm not a proponent of mandatory vaccination " for schoolchildren, says Sears, the son of well-known pediatrician Sears. " Overall, in my mind, vaccines should be a parent's choice. Given that these diseases don't pose a large threat to children around us, I think parents have that right. "

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> More parents are exercising their rights to refuse vaccines, research shows. Forty-nine states allow children to bypass school vaccination requirements because of religious objections, and 21 allow philosophical exemptions, Offit says.

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> From 1991 to 2004, the number of unvaccinated children in states allowing philosophical exemptions more than doubled, found a study in Journal of the American Medical Association. Granting exceptions to vaccine requirements has helped foster outbreaks, research shows. That's partly because like-minded parents tend to flock together, creating enclaves in which relatively few children are vaccinated on time †" and viruses have more freedom to spread, says Ari Brown of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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> In some counties in Washington state, for example, up to one in four children are exempt from vaccine requirements, according to a 2009 study in The New England Journal of Medicine. One of these under-vaccinated communities, Vashon Island, near Seattle, has been hit with repeated outbreaks of whooping cough, Offit says. Schaffner notes that France, which doesn't strictly enforce school vaccine policies, has had more than 10,000 measles cases and six deaths just this year.

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> A growing number of unvaccinated travelers are bringing the disease home, the CDC says. And as the summer travel season launches into full swing, " these viral diseases are only a plane ride away, " says Schaffner. Cancer survivor , 41, contracted measles in March from a fellow passenger on a flight from New York to Vancouver, British Columbia. In spite of having had measles as a child, got sick because migraine medications suppress her immune system. She was quarantined in her home for a week. " The airline called me, " she says, " just as I was starting to wonder, 'Hmm, I wonder what that red rash is?' "

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> Among the most vulnerable patients are children with cancer, including Ben Bredesen, 3½, who has acute leukemia. He was exposed to measles in March by another child at the Minneapolis hospital where he receives chemotherapy, says his mother, Bredesen of Minneapolis. " I can't tell you how much weight I lost, how sick you feel, checking your child at night to make sure he's still breathing, " says Bredesen, noting that infections such as measles could kill her son. " You're looking at every little thing as a symptom. "

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> Ben was lucky this time and didn't develop measles. But he will remain vulnerable during the two years of cancer therapy ahead. " My kid is fighting for his life every single day, " Bredesen says. " There is no reason that he should have to fight even harder because other people aren't vaccinating their kids. "

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> Sent from the KFree iPhone

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